Thursday, December 11, 2014

ByBadrulAlam, Co-ordinator of the South Asian climate Justice Caravan and President of Bangladesh Krishok Federation; E-mail:gip@dhaka.net

Dear Madam Chair, distinguished guests speakers and respectable audience. Heartiest congratulations to all of you on behalf of South Asian Climate Justice Caravan! I would like to share with you the experience of the caravan that we have already done.

The caravan started from Dhaka, Bangladesh on 10th of November 2014 with 160 participants from different countries like Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, the Philippines, USA, UK, Germany, Australia, Sweden and New Zealand. We arrived in Kathmandu yesterday evening. Today is the 13th day of our long overland journey. The caravan hosts include Bangladesh Krishok Federation, Bangladesh Kishani Sabha, Bangladesh Adivasi Samity, Bangladesh Agricultural Farm Labor Federation, Ekattra in Bangladesh; National Hawkers Federation, Informal Sector Workers' Action Alliance and Jana Sanghati Kendra in India; All Nepal Peasants Federation in Nepal.

It is unfortunate that 17 of our participants were stuck on the Indian side of the border as they were not allowed to enter Nepal by the Indian port immigration according to the lame excuse of having no Nepali visa but we all know Nepal gives port entry visa to Bangladeshi citizens. All of our delegates have their multiple entry Indian visas. So, there was no strong reasonable ground for denial. Following the advice of the same Indian immigration authority they bought plane tickets to come to Kathmandu for joining the PSAARC but they were not allowed by the airport immigration except one person who took his visa in Australia. So the immigration pushed them into further big monetary loss as well. They went back home with bitter and painful experience of the immigration personnel. The whole situation reminded again the urgency of visa free South Asia which we have been demanding over the years.

Our caravan was for South Asia, covering three countries: Bangladesh, India and Nepal. It was a caravan on Climate Justice, Gender and Foodsovereignty. The main message of the caravan was to highlight the planetary emergency which is in force. Our only living earth planet so far found in the whole universe is in peril due to the global climate change as well as global warning. Green House Gas (GHG) Emissions account for climate change and industrially developed countries such as the USA, Canada, Australia, Japan and European countries have been emitting GHG for the last 200 years since the beginning of the industrial revolution. So they are the major actors responsible for the global climate change. They have been doing so for their development, life-style and over-consumption. Transnational Corporations (TNCs) are playing pivotal role in Green House Gases effect on the atmosphere and the mother earth. They are doing everything for their own profit and capital. The human beings and existence of the mother earth is below their profit making target. They are just profit-mongers, nothing else. The caravan defended the declaration of the right of mother earth adopted in Cochabamba, Bolivia in 2010 which recognized the living existence of the earth and the importance of its ecology.

Yet climate change has become a great concern at global level because of the continued pressure of the global resistance. The responsible countries could not help but talking on this issue. They (Annex-1 countries) even acknowledged their role in the climate crisis and made frequent commitment to cut in emission in order to keep the average temperature of the earth below 1.5 Degree Celsius. But they do not keep their commitment, rather continuing to emit GHG. Now the average temperature of the earth is nearly 2 degrees Celsius, higher than the average, which is so alarming.

Owing to the adverse impacts of climate change, the entire world is facing devastating super calamities with extreme weather events, like cyclones, storms, water-surges, desertification, droughts, crops failure in agriculture, rising sea level, change in season's cycles, excess heat, excess cold, excess rainfall, excess snowfall, salinity in the coastal belts, melting of concentrated glaciers in Himalayas and in both north and south pole, and so on.

During the caravan in different workshops, seminars, exchange of opinions and rallies we assessed that the food sovereignty ensured by agro-ecology is under threat in the context of global climate change. The caravan agreed on the fact that peasant-based sustainable agriculture with small scale peasants, family farmers and indigenous people can feed the world with nutritious food without causing any harm to the climate.

The caravan expressed concern about the AR-5 (Assessment Report-5) of IPCC which has given an indication of the dreadful consequences the earth will encounter unless there is no significant change in the carbon reduction level. It has predicted the disappearance of coastal countries and small island states in the world within the 21st century.

The caravan also expressed concern about the level of carbon in the atmosphere which has crossed the ‘safe’ level, 350 PPM. Now it has crossed even 400 PPM. It is over the tolerant level of the atmosphere which existed for millions of years, presenting an acceptable ecology for human beings. The caravan advocated keeping the carbon level in the atmosphere within 350 PPM by reducing GHG emissions.

The caravan put emphasis on the question of climate justice and gender. It clearly assessed that climate justice is the historical and ecological dues of the responsible countries and they have to pay to the global south in the form of reparation. Women are extremely and disproportionately victimized by climate change and deserved the reparation on the priority.

The caravan argues that South Asia consists of one-fifth of the world’s population and the majority of the population still goes hungry and live in poverty. They have their right to reparation. Following a democratic method, the reparations should go to the people who are affected by the climate change, but have not caused it.

The caravan stressed on the question of building alternatives to climate change from below, not sitting idle. So it has emphasized adopting everywhere agro-ecological farming methods which cool the planet. It also advocated for the use of some renewable energies, namely community controlled solar power, windmills, bio-gas generation, small scale hydro power generation, effective geo-thermal power generation and many more other options instead of fossil fuel-based dirty energy which is contributing to climate change.

The caravan clearly rejected the false solutions like CDM, agro-fuels, REDD+, GMOs, carbon off-setting, smart agriculture, green economy, etc. so far proposed by the UNFCCC as answers to climate change. These will further aggravate the climate crisis. The caravan thinks that the real solutions lie in the grassroots.

60 percent of the world resources have already been used up by the TNCs. The remaining 40 percent is ocean, sea, forest, air. They are also trying to grab these resources. The caravan is strongly opposed to all types of resource grabbing including land, which is the main source of lives and livelihood of the people.

The caravan highly criticized the adoption of GE Bt. Brinjal (Eggplant) in Bangladesh whereas it is banned in India because of its negative consequences. The caravan considered GMOs unethical and they should have no future. It strongly defended the local seeds for our future, guaranteeing our food sovereignty. It underscored to protect, preserve, conserve and restore the indigenous seeds for ecological balance protection.

The caravan expressed the deep concern of the climate forced migrants which is a reality in the whole world. Their right as climate migrants should be protected by the framework of UNO (United Nations Organization). Presently there are 250 million climate migrants in the world and it is on the increase.

During the caravan there were lots of interactions, sharing, lessons-learned among the participants who met thousands of people on the ground who are naturally trying to adapt to and mitigate with the climate change on their own experience. However, it does not mean that the responsible countries should continue with emissions. It is just an example of the capacity of the grassroots people.

The main objective of the caravan is to build a strong grassroots movement network in South Asia which will be a complement to the global campaign on climate justice.

The caravan urged the Official SAARC to demand climate justice to the northern developed countries for the benefit of the global south. It has also demanded to strengthen the food and seed bank mechanism under SAARC for both the reduction of hunger and for the protection of rich bio-diversity and genetic resources in South Asia.

A declaration of caravan is under way. It will be submitted to the official SAARC here in Kathmandu and to the climate conference in Lima, Peru to be held next month, prioritizing the grassroots people’s experiences and a proposal to the solutions to the global climate crisis.

Hereby I am ending my presentation by saying that we have had very fruitful, productive, constructive and effective caravan in terms of outreach, and repercussions amongst the people and the caravan participants. However, still we have a long way to go and the ultimate victory is in the hands of the people. We demand system change, not climate change. We have to go hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder, united. Long live South Asia with peace, prosperity, democracy, non-communality, secularism in a visa-free region with people to people and movement to movement connectivity! Long live international solidarity! Long live South Asian regionalism!

We men and women, small farmers, Adivasis, agricultural labourers, workers, fishfolk, landless people, plantation workers, hawkers and youth organized a caravan across Bangladesh, India and Nepal to bring people together for climate justice and peoples solutions to the climate crisis. Our 13 day South Asian Climate Justice, Gender and Food Sovereignty Caravan, was organized by the Bangladesh Krishok Federation; Bangladesh Kishani Sabha, Friends of Bangladesh and All Nepal Peasant's Federation and included these movements as well as the Bangladesh Adivasi Samity, Bangladesh Agricultural Farm Labour Federation, EKOTTRO, National Hawkers' Federation, Progressive Plantation Workers' Union, All Nepal Women's Association, MONLAR, and La Via Campesina which are peoples movements struggling for dignity and the rights of rural and working people. We visited 12 towns and cities of Bangladesh, India and Nepal. We were joined by many in the same struggle from our sister peasant organisations of India; Sri Lanka; Nepal, Indonesia and the Philippines; as well as friends of our struggles from the U.K.; U.S., Germany, Sweden and Australia. Our Caravan culminated in a three day 'People's SAARC' held in Kathmandu, Nepal where movements came together to discuss alternative solutions to the climate crisis and hold demonstrations demanding climate justice. Together we are part of the global people's resistance for climate justice.

In the towns and cities we held meetings, workshops and seminars on the key issues facing our communities. Through this caravan it became clear to us that our problems are shared by our brother and sister farmers in South Asia and across the world. These are dominated by the planetary emergency created by the climate crisis. Our very existence is becoming precarious through landlessness; land grabbing by elites; local government corruption; gender inequality and discrimination (especially women's dual labour in the household and in the fields), and the imposition of industrial market-based agricultural methods (including the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers) which have increased our production costs and debts and forced peasants from their lands and livelihoods.

Climate change is aggravating such problems and also making farming difficult due to flooding; salt water inundation; cyclone damage; desertification and drought; and unseasonal and unpredictable weather. These are being caused by excessive greenhouse gas emissions and unsustainable exploitation of natural resources particularly from the wealthy industrialized countries, but also from industrialized elites in countries such as China, India and Brazil. They bear the responsibility for climate change but the poor in the Global South are bearing the burden and suffering of climate change. Given these crises faced by us we totally reject the market-based interventions into Bangladeshi, Indian, Nepali and Sri Lankan agriculture that aim to further worsen our conditions. The false solutions to the climate crisis that world leaders are pushing at the ineffective UNFCCC process are an attempt by multinational corporations that have caused climate change in the first place to further take over what is left of our lands and livelihoods.

In farming they are pushing through false solutions like climate ready GMOs (such as Bt. Brinjal in Bangladesh after it was rejected by India following farmers' resistance); petrol based polluting fertilizers; biochar; agrofuels at the cost of food; increasing monocultures; and programmes such as the framework of Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) and the Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM). The polluters think that by throwing money at poor countries through loans tied to promoting these false solutions, they can continue to emit carbon and at the same time take over our agriculture. We reaffirm our rejection of, and struggle against, all transnational corporations that pursue profits before people's livelihoods. We demand that the efforts of the people be supported to enable real peoples’ solutions to the climate crisis.

WE DEMAND

(i) comprehensive land reform including land and land titles for the landless; all land grabbing by elite interests and multi national corporations needs to be stopped.

(ii) government support for small farmers that feed the world and cool the planet - small farmers need fair prices for their produce, interest free credit, subsidies, guaranteed markets, insurance against disasters, self reliant ecological agricultural methods such as traditional farming methods which need state sponsored research. Small farmer agriculture needs support for food sovereignty of our nations. We oppose dependence on food produced by polluting industrial agriculture and imports.

(iii) recognition of peasant women's dual burden of farming and household labour and the end to all gender discrimination and inequality.

(iv) constitutional recognition and rights for Adivasi peoples and support to indigenous farming.

(v) reparation rather than loans paid to the governments of Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka and the rest of the Global South as part of the climate debt owed by industrialized countries of the Global North.

(vi) all adaptation measures to climate change to include full participation and consultation with local communities.

(vii) a legally binding agreement to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions signed by all governments responsible for those emissions.

(viii) a full and just transition to community-controlled renewable energy.

(ix) legal rights for all climate refugees.

(x) a visa-free South Asia.

(xi) protection of, and end to the privatization of, all biodiversity and genetic resources in South Asia.

(xii) respect for the rights of Mother Earth.

Our demands form part of the wider movement for climate justice emerging across the world enshrined in the 2010 Cochabamba Declaration. We call for a further intensification of international solidarity between farmers’ movements and networks (such as La Via Campesina; Asian Peasant Coalition; South Asian Peasant Coalition; People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty, Jubilee South Asia and the Pacific on Debt and Development) Climate Justice Networks such as Climate Justice Now! and Climate Justice Action; trade unions; and indigenous and Dalit peoples movements.

Another successful caravan for climate justice, this time across South Asia!

The South Asian Climate Justice, Gender Justice, and Food Sovereignty Caravan was organized in Bangladesh, India, and
Nepalbetween 10 and 24
November, 2014. This year’s caravan informed and
mobilized vulnerable peasant populations in order to respond to the threats of
climate change, and to further develop international solidarity networks concerning
climate change, gender and food sovereignty. It also addressed some of the other key issues in
Bangladesh-India-Nepal agriculture sector like seed banks and energy alternatives.

The Caravan was
hosted by the Bangladesh Krishok Federation, Bangladesh Kisani Sabha (in
Bangladesh), the Bharatiya Kisan Union, IMSE (in India), and the All Nepal
Peasant Federation and All Nepal Women’s Association (in Nepal). It moved in the following way:

Bangladesh: 6 locations from November 10- 16, 2014

1)Dhaka (capital): the Caravan commenced here

2)Gajipur

3)Madhupur, Tangail

4)Iswardi, Pabna

5)Sadhuhati, Jhenaidah

6)Jagdishpur in Chaugachha, Jessore

India from November 17- 19, 2014: Kolkata

Nepal: 2 locations from November 20-24, 2014

1)Kakarvitta

2)Kathmandu (capital)

Audience at the inauguration

Badrul Alam, President Bangladesh Krishok Federation, also the
chair, inaugurated the function on 10
November 2014 in the capital city of Dhaka in Bangladesh [which is covered on our blog athttp://lvcsouthasia.blogspot.in/2014/11/climate-justice-gender-and-food.html link]. It was addressed by Bangladesh Agricultural Farm Labor Federation
General Secretary Abdul Majid, Friends of Bangladesh representative Emma from
Australia, Meghna Alam from Ekattro, Bangladesh Krishok Federation Office
Secretary Pathak Lal Golder, Bangladesh Kishani Sabha Organizing Secretary Asma
Begum, and Bangladesh Adivasi Samity President Sree Biswanath Singh, among
others. As good as three hundred people including foreign delegates from
Australia, Germany, UK, USA, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Sweden and New
Zealand attended the inaugural.

Participants were divided in four groups after plenary to brainstorm on GMOs

On the following day in Gajipur, Bangladesh the highlight was
the plenary session on GMOs and Bt Brinjal (Egg plant) issue that discussed the
significance of local variety of seeds, its impact on human health, agriculture,
ecology and the economy and the role of peasants in food production. The key
recommendation to the authority was to ban the Bt. Brinjal keeping in view its
negative impact.

Visit to Solar water plant, Tangail

Next day the event included a field trip to solar water and seed
processing center in Madhupur, Tangail Bangladesh followed by seminar on
agro-ecology, grassroots solutions to climate change; food sovereignty and
indigenous peoples land right. The participants were of the views that the
indigenous people are very close to the nature and preserve the ecology.

On the following day at Iswardi, Bangladesh during the
discussion, Mr. Alam spoke on the broader aspect of climate change and proposed
to UNFCCC to accept the grassroots people’ thoughts around solutions to climate
change. He said, “the real solutions lie in the grassroots consisting of community
people. The use of solar power, windmill, bio-gas, small hydro-electric power
generation, charcoal, limited scale geothermal power generation can guarantee
the clean energy.” The seminar also rejected the existing energy-security
based on fossil fuel mining which jeopardizes the usual decoration of nature.

Visit to organic fields, Sadhuhati

Next day a seminar in Sadhuhati, Bangladesh was held with the
participation of local communities on climate change, climate migrants,
grassroots adaptation and mitigation. The seminar deliberated that the rights
of climate migrants should be protected by the UNO convention. The participants
asked governments of all South-Asian region to play active role in order to
realize the reparation for the people affected by climate change.

The seminar in Jagadishpur,
Bangladesh focused on grass-root networking in
South Asia to combat the climate change. BadrulAlam said “we have to have a
strong solidarity among the movements in South Asia in order to realize
the climate justice in the form of reparation from the industrially developed
countries.”

Next day the caravan crossed border to reach Kolkata, India meeting
and distributing leaflets during the travel. On 17 November 2014 more than
thousand people from National Hawkers’ Federation welcomed the caravan. Climate
issues were discussed by Mr. Alam and Mr. Shaktiman Ghosh for two days.

Then
the caravan headed for Nepal on 19 November 2014. Next morning a seminar on
climate change and Food Sovereignty was held in Kakarvitta, Nepal addressing the
dreadful consequences of climate change in South and South East Asia. The caravan moved to Kathmandu, Nepal the next day.

On 22 November 2014 a people’s march was organized where the
Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Bam Dev Goutam were present and made an
opening speech for the P-SAARC which isa people to
people forum in the SAARC region that enables non-government voices to come
together at the regional level. Badrul
Alam asked SAARC to strengthen the food and seed bank mechanism to ensure food
sovereignty. In the following two days major workshops were held on review of P-SAARC declaration, enhancement climate change, farmers’ capacity enhancement and food
sovereignty. This was followed by a closing ceremony of South Asian Climate
Justice, Gender and Food sovereignty Caravan.

The caravan addressed the challenges of climate change in South
Asian region as well as in the world. It provided a platform for peasants,
indigenous people, Dalit, marginalized, subaltern, fisher folk, pastoralists,
herders, plantation workers, agricultural workers, agricultural farm workers,
women, and youth to express their concerns and share their experiences.Finally, a declaration was written based upon their
experience.

On October 29,
Bharatiya Kisan Union picketed the Shakti Bhawan in Lucknow: Agriculture
Production Commissioner promised to solve the problems through
negotiations—Bharatiya Kisan Union

Farmers picketed Shakti Bhawan, Lucknow

October 29, 2014

Bharatiya Kisan Union
cordoned Shakti Bhawan and accused the state government of ignoring the
problems of the farmers including electricity, water, sugarcane, paddy
procurement issues etc. Addressing the farmers, Chaudhary Naresh Tikait said
“the farmers are committing suicide because of nonpayment for sugarcane. Due to
increasing debt, farmers are forced to mortgage their land. Paddy procurement
is not happening because state bureaucracy is dominated by executives who are
not serious about the problems of farmers”.

Thousands of farmers took to
the streets of Lucknow that led to traffic jam and subsequently it drew
attention of the executives towards farmers’ problems. The farmers demanded to
talk to the Chief Minister but agreed to talk to Agriculture Production
Commissioner due to Chief Minister being out of city. The representatives from
Farmers’ groups handed over a letter addressed to the Chief Minister demanding
solution to their problems listed as under:

1. Keeping in mind that the
drought has resulted in significant increase in cost of production of sugarcane
so the price for new sugarcane for 2014-15 crushing session should be set at
least Rs. 400/quintal.

2. Immediate payment of last
session’s dues with interest to sugarcane farmers as ordered by the High Court.
Sugar mills should be made operational immediately.

3. The cost of production of
paddy in the state has also increased significantly because of drought. The
paddy farmers are not getting a fair price for their crop. The state government
should announce a bonus of Rs. 200/quintal and also early opening of
procurement centers for paddy purchase.

4. State should order
insurance companies to compensate farmers for losses due to drought. State
should compensate uninsured farmers at the rate of Rs 20, 000 / - per acre and
their electricity bills should be waived.

5. Uninterrupted power
supply of at least 18 hours/ day from November 15 to February 28 from 9 o'clock
in the morning.

6. Farmers should get a new
electricity connection for private wells and all accessories to be made
available for already approved connections. Government must withdraw increased
rates of electricity. Power supply in all districts of Bundelkhand region is
rural, but the bill is charged at urban rates, which should end immediately.

7. Benefits of various schemes
run by the Department of Agriculture are not reaching out to the farmers
because of corruption. We demand appointment of an IAS officer as director of
agriculture to check corruption.

8. Government to establish a
special action plan to deal with menace of stray animals in our agricultural
fields such as nilgai, wild boar, etc. that destroy crops.

9. Police and agricultural
marketing committee are exploiting farmers who adopt agro-forestry. State
government should include commercial trees like Poplar, Teak, and Eucalyptus
etc. in the agro-forestry so that farmers are accused of cutting and selling
trees grown in their farms.

10. Despite having four
agriculture universities in the state, there is no availability of improved
varieties and farmers are using seeds varieties developed in Haryana and Punjab
agricultural universities. We demand consistent work on improved seeds varieties
in our universities.

11. All cases registered
against farmers during the movement should be taken back.

12. Cooperatives in
Bundelkhand have decided to deal differently with kharif and rabi crops. And
some part of the credit is compulsorily meant for buying fertilizers and seeds.
This must be stopped and we demand restoration of earlier system.

13. The price of urea and
diesel in the neighboring states is lesser than of Uttar Pradesh. Rate of tax
imposed on urea and diesel should be reduced by the state government.

14. Accidental insurance for
farmers should be provided in all cases for all the districts of the state.

15. The consolidation
process should be sped up and it should be done in one village at a time. The
corruption in the department should be eliminated.

Representatives of farmers in discussion with executives

Agricultural Production
Commissioner also called the Principal Secretary Cane Development, Principal
Secretary Energy and Secretary of Agriculture to discuss all issues. Agriculture
Production Commissioner assured Chaudhary Naresh Tikait
of 10 hours of power supply in rural areas. All accessories for approved
private tube well connections will be made available to the farmers by March
31. Elimination of market fee on poplar, teak, eucalyptus etc will be
considered seriously.He also assured
farmers of talks with Honorable Chief Minister in the coming week. Power for
irrigation during the winter season will be given to the farmers. After the
discussion, Tikait announced to end the Panchayat.